Alex Dreyfus, the founder of Global Poker League(GPL) has attempted to clarify some of the issues that were recently brought up poker pro Tristan Wade over a somewhat heated Twitter conversation.
Wade is an accomplished live and online poker player with total live winnings of $1,523,395.
He is also a bracelet winner at the 2011 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe taking home €182,048 and also been able to make it to the final tables of five WSOP events.
Over a number of tweets which can be seen on Wades blog: The Life and Times of T. Wade, Wade pointed out what he felt were issues in the GPL Player contracts, saying the terms were skewed towards benefitting the company. He raised several issues such as contract terms differing by player, the extent of commitments required of players, the compensation structure for the players among many other concerns. He questioned GPL’s business model saying that it seemed to revolve around sponsorship, licensing and merchandising.
Wade said he raised these concerns because he felt that most players might not have read the contract fully before signing up for GPL. A total of 203 poker players have so far registered for the GPL Draft Day. On Tuesday we reported Faraz Jaka was a surprise pick as a franchise manager.
Speaking to shed more light on the Twitter issue, Dreyfus said that although he usually did not engage in retaliation on Twitter when attacked, he did this time as the GPL was his baby and it was being attacked by people who did not understand it. He invited Wade and both Paul, a poker industry reporter to join him in a Skype call or Twitch discussion to sort out the issue. Dreyfus did not want to use Twitter to continue the exchange as he felt it was not the right platform for such a discussion. However, Wade despite agreeing initially for a meeting over Twitch changed his mind and backed out a short while later.
Dreyfus said that contracts differed due to requests received from players or team managers. He explained that his company believed in being flexible regarding its contracts, saying that it was about engaging in a conversation to find mutually acceptable ground. Dreyfus also stated that so far no player has refused to sign the GPL contract.
He defended GPL’s business model and responded to accusations of sponsors being too closely involved saying that the sponsors are not in any way directly related to the actual player but are focused on exposure for their brands at the events which is the most important factor for them. He emphasized that GPL was for a large part being built with mind business and marketing perspectives in mind. Speaking on whether it was the team or the player that was getting promoted he said that corporate sponsors preferred teams over players due to the risk factor.
In a statement Alex Dreyfus CEO Mediarex said,
We provide a package to them[sponsors]. This is something the player cannot provide. That’s why it makes sense to be apart of the GPL. Marketing Agencies and advertising agencies have an appetite for teams and GPL, not players. We are a marketing company not a syndicate of poker players.